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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Tricks of the Trade

It's Thursday! This week is flying by. Yesterday was busy at work and I felt that late-afternoon drag, "I'm tired, I don't want to go to the gym." I reminded myself of a few things.

Being tired is NOT a valid excuse to skip the gym.

If I skip the gym every time I feel tired, I'll miss half my workouts (if not more).

I always feel better afterward, I'm always thankful I went. I will regret it later if I don't go.

Exercising will give me MORE energy to manage the rest of the day.

If I skip the gym this time, I'll be more likely to skip it next time. Going will keep momentum on my side and keep my confidence up.

But the truth remained I was tired so I bargained with myself, "Just go to the gym and run for 10 minutes on the treadmill and do weights." Better than nothing, right? Besides, after work I ate a scone I didn't really need and scones + couch ≠ momentum.

So I got to the gym and started on the treadmill. I was still coughing a little bit. The guy on the treadmill next to me wiped down the treadmill before he got on it as if it was contaminated with the plague. My coughing probably unnerved him. But it sounds worse than it is. I hope.

Anyway, I was nearing the 10 minute mark when I thought, "I feel pretty good, I think I'll go for 20 minutes." And there it is, the old Ten Minute Trick (I just made that name up)...works every time. If we can fool ourselves into making bad choices, "I can buy this gigantic bag of M&Ms and only eat one serving," why not fool ourselves into making good choices?

And at around 15 minutes I still felt good so I considered going for 25 minutes. I reminded myself that after the surgery on Monday I won't be able to run for a while so I better run while I can. But at minute 18 things unraveled and I stayed with the goal of 20 minutes. This is my workout, I make the choices. And 20 minutes is better than 10 minutes which is better than nothing.

After the run I did chest/triceps/core and felt really strong, already so grateful I wagered on myself and made it to the gym. For dinner I ended up eating a Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken meal.

Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken dinner

It was very flavorful. The only thing I didn't understand was the need for 1.5 teaspoons of sugar (a teaspoon of sugar has between 4-8 grams depending on the granulation). I can't see making this at home and putting in that much sugar. And in looking through the ingredients list, I'm not even sure where all the sugar is coming from.

Is it all in the evaporated cane juice? Or is there sugar in other stuff, like guar gum, xanthan gum or carrageenan? See, that's the problem with processed foods, even "healthy" ones such as this...too much mysterious non-food stuff. But, it seems there's a place in my life for this sort of thing and right now I'm not going to fight it. Besides, it was good. And at 300 calories it balanced out the scone. At least the scone was homemade, right?

I think the rice and rice starch might be counting as some sugar in there too. I don't see an entry for just carbohydrates on the nutrition information, so I'd imagine those starches are being counted as sugars.

I love the ten minute trick to get to the gym! I do the same thing when I'm feeling blah after a long day at work. Getting myself in the door is the most difficult part. Once I get underway, I usually feel good enough to talk myself into doing at least a little more than I had originally intended.

It's partly the carrots and I would guess the peas. The sugar in them is naturally occurring and isn't added sugar. But, the thing about food labels is that they include all sugar whether added or naturally in the food. The new food label being proposed will require showing how much sugar is added sugar. My understanding is that parts of the food industry oppose this.